- Israel: Herzog accepts certified election results in a blow to Netanyahu’s claim of vote fraud
Source: Boston Herald
“Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday accepted as legally binding the certified results from last week’s parliamentary elections and said he would begin consultations with party representatives on the formation of a new government. Herzog’s acceptance of the results as valid dealt a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s effort to discredit the vote in which his religious-nationalist bloc lost its majority in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, while Arab-led parties made historic gains. Netanyahu and his supporters have repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that the Arab-led parties had ‘stolen’ the election, possibly with foreign assistance. The Israeli president is required now to sit down with various party leaders to determine who to name as prime minister-designate — a process that could potentially bring Netanyahu’s opponents to power.” (11/04/26)
- Johnson out as US House Republican leader
Source: Semafor
“House Speaker Mike Johnson privately told staff he is not planning on running for minority leader or any other leadership role in the next Congress, according to people familiar with the comments. His decision will kick off a scramble among House Republican leadership contenders in the aftermath of their sweeping losses Tuesday night. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and current Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., are launching leadership bids on Wednesday. … Republicans could see other shakeups further down their leadership chain. Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, currently the Republican Study Committee chair, announced in a letter to GOP colleagues Wednesday that he’d run for the second-ranking position.” (11/04/26)
https://www.semafor.com/article/11/04/2026/johnson-out-as-house-republican-leader
- Australia: Regime argues in court that social media ban is FOR THE CHILLLLLLLLDREN
Source: Toronto Star [Canada]
“Government lawyers told Australia’s highest court on Wednesday that a world-first ban on children younger than 16 from holding social media accounts was necessary to protect developing brains. The Australian government is fighting in the High Court two constitutional challenges to the ban that took effect last year on young children holding accounts on Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube and Twitch. The challenges were brought by Reddit, a U.S. online forum, and Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project.” (11/04/26)
- TX: Regime wants to dramatically expand alligator hunting
Source: Houston Chronicle
“Texas could soon give alligator hunters significantly more time to pursue the reptiles as wildlife officials grapple with a surprising trend: more alligators, but fewer being hunted. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is proposing to more than triple the alligator hunting season in 22 Southeast Texas counties, including Galveston, Brazoria, Chambers, Jefferson and Liberty. The season would expand from 20 to 61 days, running from Sept. 1 through Oct. 31 instead of Sept. 10 through Sept. 30. The changes, which will be discussed during a Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 4, would also allow nighttime alligator hunting on private property, including private waters, and expand the methods hunters can use to capture the reptiles.” (11/04/26)
https://www.chron.com/wildlife/article/texas-alligator-hunting-season-changes-22509593.php
- Contractor admits passing US regime’s top-secret information to Ethiopian regime
Source: ABC News
“A former U.S. government contractor has admitted passing classified intelligence to Ethiopia that officials used in military operations, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday. Abraham Teklu Lemma, 54, supplied secrets to senior Ethiopian officials for more than two years urging them to deploy drones against fighters battling the government, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington. Lemma, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to transmit national defense information to a foreign government. He worked as an information technology contractor at the State Department, Justice Department and National Reconnaissance Office, prosecutors said.” (11/04/26)
- NYC: Devoted mom found dead next to gang member boyfriend in suspected murder-suicide
Source: New York Post
“A Bronx nurse and her federal agent boyfriend were found shot dead in a Riverdale apartment Tuesday night in an apparent murder-suicide, according to police and sources. Andrea Cantarini, 37, and her boyfriend, Juan Cornelio Diaz, 38 — a US Customs and Border Patrol officer stationed at JFK airport — were found with fatal gunshot wounds to their heads inside Cantarini’s apartment on Blackstone Avenue in Riverdale around 9 p.m., the NYPD said. Diaz allegedly shot and killed Cantarini, before apparently turning the gun on himself, according to the sources.” (11/04/26)
- France: New Cyberattack Targets Blood Banks, Health Ministry Says
Source: US News & World Report
“Several regional blood banks were hit by a cyberattack on November 2, the French health ministry said on Wednesday, but there was no damage to blood products stored in the centres. The incident follows attacks that forced stores in eight European countries to throw away vast quantities of food after hackers tampered with their fridges on Monday, mirroring hacks that swept dozens of supermarkets in France three weeks ago.” (11/04/26)
- Appeals court hands Mamdani legal win on NYC luxury second-home tax
Source: Fox News
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored a legal victory Wednesday after a state appeals court cleared the way for his administration to move forward with a controversial tax on high-end second homes, according to The New York Times. The Brooklyn-based appellate court reversed a September ruling by a Staten Island judge, who found that the city mishandled the tax’s rollout and ordered officials to start over. The city appealed the decision while continuing to implement the tax, also called a pied-à-terre tax.” (11/04/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/appeals-court-hands-mamdani-legal-win-nyc-luxury-second-home-tax
- Bitcoin Price Dips Under $76K Then Recovers as Blue Wave Hits Washington
Source: Bitcoin.com
“Bitcoin slid to about $75,740 overnight before recovering to $77,000 as U.S. midterm returns showed Democrats taking the House and closing in on the Senate, dragging stock futures and crypto lower together. … Bitcoin was not alone in witnessing a slump as CNBC reported that S&P 500 futures traded 1.1% lower, Nasdaq 100 futures shed 2% and Dow futures fell 367 points, or 0.7%. The Kobeissi Letter noted the S&P 500 was on track to open below 7,500 for the first time since July 31 as markets priced in a Democratic victory in both chambers.” (11/04/26)
https://news.bitcoin.com/crypto-news/bitcoin-price-dips-under-76k-democrats-midterms/
- Zelensky gives Melania Trump Ukraine’s highest award after Oleshky ceasefire
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has given the country’s highest award for women to the US First Lady, Melania Trump. The Order of Princess Olha, 1st Class, was awarded to Melania Trump for her ‘significant personal contribution to humanitarian support for Ukraine’, according to the presidential decree. It comes after the end of ceasefire in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson, which allowed for the evacuation of several hundred people from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky. Russian and Ukrainian delegations – made up of ombudsmen who were involved in the evacuation mission as well as senior officials – are due to meet at the White House on Thursday on Melania Trump’s invitation. The White House said that Melania Trump had ‘independently initiated engagement between the two warring nations and successfully secured a ceasefire’. ‘This achievement marks an unprecedented diplomatic initiative by an American First Lady’, it added.” (11/04/26)
- Spain: Economy minister takes over transport ministry after deadly crash
Source: Politico
“Spain’s Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo, will run the country’s Transport Ministry until the Nov. 29 election following the resignation of Óscar Puente, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Wednesday morning. … Puente resigned on Tuesday over the Oct. 28 train crash in Toledo province that killed 69 people, calling his decision ‘a matter of political dignity.’ It was Spain’s second deadly rail disaster this year after January’s accident in Adamuz, which killed 46 people.” (11/04/26)
- Scientist who brought frog embryos to Boston for cancer research cleared of smuggling charges
Source: SFGate
“U.S. prosecutors have dropped all criminal charges against a Russian scientist who was tossed into an immigration jail last year after she landed at a Boston airport with frog embryos intended for her cancer research at Harvard Medical School. Kseniia Petrova, 31, spent four months in detention following her arrest in early 2025 as she returned from a vacation in France, where she had stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples for research. She was questioned about the samples while passing through a customs checkpoint at Logan International Airport, then later charged with smuggling. A federal judge on Wednesday granted a request by prosecutors to dismiss those charges as well as counts alleging that she’d concealed facts and made false statements to government officials.” (11/04/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/federal-judge-dismisses-case-against-russian-born-22512123.php
- Disney to see another round of layoffs
Source: United Press International
“Disney is preparing for another round of layoffs, and some managers were told to cut 20% of expenses, unnamed sources told multiple media outlets Tuesday. The cuts will be the fourth round of layoffs in 2026 and under CEO Josh D’Amaro, Forbes, Variety and CNBC reported. The Bloomberg report, which cited anonymous sources, said some departments ‘will be affected disproportionately,’ but didn’t say which ones.” (11/03/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/11/03/disney-layoffs-coming/5511793736423/
- The Fall of the House of Annual Fundraiser Update
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Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - Democrats take House, Senate in US midterm elections
Source: Associated Press
“Democrats have won control of Congress in a widespread repudiation of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, a drubbing that reached deep into reliable GOP territory. Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats in ruby-red states and battlegrounds alike: Kansas, which hasn’t elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina. They held on to battleground seats in Georgia and Michigan. In the House, Democrats flipped more than two dozen districts, some that voted for Trump by double digits in 2024.” (11/04/26)
- Four oil tankers destroyed in Hormuz after hitting mines, Tehran says
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Four oil tankers caught fire after hitting mines while attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran said Wednesday, after it warned no one would benefit from a return to war. It came a day after US President Donald Trump said the United States had launched strikes on the Islamic republic, following reports of a raid on Qeshm, the largest island in the strait. … Indirect contact between the United States and Iran via mediators has continued with little sign of any diplomatic breakthrough, and Iran has said it is ready to reopen the strait but only if Washington agrees to a long-standing list of demands.” (11/04/26)
- Federal judge strips ICE of presumption of honesty, orders agency to turn over arrest records and bodycam footage after agent fabricated report
Source: Yahoo! News
“A federal judge in Oregon says he can no longer assume ICE agents are telling the truth in their arrest paperwork, declaring Monday that live testimony is now ‘necessary’ after finding that warrantless arrests are still being made and facts are being ‘fabricated in official records’ by immigration officers. In a 50-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled that ICE repeatedly violated an existing court order governing warrantless immigration arrests in the Beaver State, with inaccurate reports, missing records and accounts that did not match what actually happened. The judge’s loss of confidence in the agency was so pronounced that he withdrew the usual presumption that government officials have properly performed their duties.” (11/03/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/federal-judge-strips-ice-presumption-192003753.html
- Ukraine: Russian attacks hit energy facilities in Odesa and Zhytomyr regions
Source: AOL
“Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight left more than 180,000 customers in the Zhytomyr region without power and heavily damaged a facility belonging to private energy firm DTEK in the Odesa region, officials and the company said. Scheduled power outages were in place across the Odesa region. About 130 settlements in the Zhytomyr region were without electricity on Tuesday morning, according to its governor, Vitalii Bunechko. No deaths or injuries were reported.” (11/03/26)
https://www.aol.com/articles/russian-attacks-hit-energy-facilities-065508000.html
- Trump says US regime will cut off $4 billion in aid to Israeli regime
Source: The Hill
“President Trump said on Tuesday that he has reached a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will end U.S. aid to Israel this year. Trump said in an interview with ‘Fox and Friends’ that he and Netanyahu made a deal ‘months ago’ for Washington to end its aid to Israel. ‘They’re fine with it,’ the president said. ‘They’ve become a very successful country, They don’t need it, and we won’t be paying anymore.’ Trump noted that the U.S. would ‘help’ Israel if they need it, noting the Middle Eastern country has been ‘a great ally.'” (11/03/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6191387-trump-netanyahu-end-us-aid/
- TN: Bodycam video shows moments after man fatally shot by National Guard in Memphis
Source: CBS News
“Tennessee National Guard troops in Memphis last summer trained their handguns on a man as he lay dying on a sidewalk after a guard member shot him in the back, video released Monday by county prosecutors shows. A Memphis police officer can be heard in the footage from an officer’s body camera calling for an ambulance and then asking the troops, ‘Hey, you guys got a medical kit or anything?’ … [Tyrin] Johnson, 20, who had been armed, died at the scene from a single gunshot wound, according to investigators. An autopsy report shared by Johnson’s family found that he was shot in the back, contradicting police and National Guard accounts that said he was facing the guard members with a gun when they fired at him.” (11/03/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bodycam-video-moments-after-man-fatally-shot-national-guard-memphis/
- Post-Election Day Thoughts
Source: Chris Spangle
by Chris Spangle“Voters will keep voting for their best chance at affordability until they get it. That’s why Trump won in 2024. People want the economy they had in 2018 again. It is, and always will be, the economy, stupid. We keep having change election after change election because both parties want to appeal to their increasingly radical bases and not to voters’ far more moderate views.” (11/04/26)
- Immunity Without Accountability: Who Answers When Government Fails?
Source: Town Hall
by Joe Abraham“Katie Abraham was 20 when she was killed on January 19, 2025, in Sanctuary Urbana, Illinois. Her death changed my life forever and sharpened a question beyond the person responsible for the crash: When government decisions affect public safety, who holds officials accountable when their policies or failures create foreseeable risks? Government officials need legal protections to perform their duties. Judges must make difficult decisions, legislators need room to deliberate, and executive officials must be able to govern without constant fear of personal lawsuits. But immunity is not one universal protection. Different legal standards apply to different officials and functions. Protecting legitimate judgment is one thing. Preventing serious failures from being examined is another. The familiar response to government failure is that voters can remove those responsible. Elections are essential, but their effectiveness depends on whether political power can meaningfully be challenged.” (11/04/26)
- The next Congress shouldn’t let Iran become a “background war”
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Andrew Jarocki“Truly ending a war of choice is hard. Anything short of total victory, especially for the American psyche, is unsatisfying. If the home front can be insulated from its consequences, the temptation is strong to wade deeper into a no man’s land between peace and war in search of a more palatable outcome. With Venezuelan oil on the way to rescue gas prices, perhaps just a few more months of conflict with Iran could secure a more face-saving end?a The hard-learned answer is no. Allowing the White House to continue to wage a conflict in the background, with no pressure to meet deadlines or clear metrics of victory, is like ignoring a steady drip from a pipe and acting surprised when the basement is eventually flooded.” (11/04/26)
- “It’s the war, stupid”: Dems sweep midterms on wave of voter anger
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Blaise Malley“Democrats secured an overwhelming victory in the midterm elections on Tuesday in a stunning rebuke to President Donald Trump’s first two years in office, winning majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives. By midnight Democrats flipped six Senate seats — including in reliably red states like South Carolina, Texas, and Kansas. As of this morning, they added Michigan and Maine. In a rare inversion of historical trends, foreign policy played a serious role in the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections. Exit polling showed 74% of voters said the Iran War was a ‘crucial’ or ‘major’ factor in their vote. Exit polling also found that 62% of voters believed using military force against Iran was the ‘wrong decision.’ This all jibed with polls leading up to the midterms.” (11/04/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/midterm-elections-2026-results/
- Israel Supporters Always Pretend To Believe Things They Don’t Actually Believe
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“The New York Times has published a story about a supposed Iranian plot to use chemical weapons which nobody actually believes. Not even the perpetually war-horny New York Times tries to frame this as a real news report, presenting it instead as a subject of tense division inside the Trump White House. … To be clear, not one single person anywhere on earth believes this is true. Israel doesn’t believe it. Washington doesn’t believe it. Nobody reading about it in the New York Times believes it. But we’re hearing about it anyway like it’s a real thing, because too many powerful people want more bombing in Iran.” (11/04/26)
- What a Half-Century of Congressional “Reform” Has Wrought
Source: The Dispatch
by Jonah Goldberg“Congress was not designed to be a parliament where parties vote in lockstep with their party leader in the White House. But that’s how it’s worked for decades. Starting in the 1970s, Congress was quietly revolutionized from within. It was all done in the name of ‘reform,’ but the better word is ‘deform.'” (11/04/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/congress-reform-broken-checks-balances/
- Trumpism Is Failing Because It Is Very, Very Stupid
Source: The New Republic
by Matt Ford“The MAGA movement is fully rooted in the promotion of ignorance and demonization of knowledge. That’s why it’s failing now. That’s why it will fail in the future.” (11/04/260
https://newrepublic.com/article/217517/midterm-2026-trumpism-without-trump
- Why Trump got the bloodbath he deserved
Source: spiked
by Sean Collins“‘Pretend I’m on the ballot’, said Trump, as he held rallies across the country. Yes, that’s what many did yesterday – they saw the midterms as a referendum on Trump, and they voted to give him a bloody nose. It was no big mystery what they didn’t like about Trump and his party. As exit polls showed, inflation, gas prices and the cost of living were top of mind. And voters blamed Trump for their unhappy circumstances, drawing a straight line between his policy choices – tariffs and the Iran war – and the tough cost-of-living situation they face. Whiffs of corruption (like the Qatari jet and Trump family deals) and bizarre preoccupations (like the ballroom and reflecting pool) just added to the sense that the president and his party are not focussed on people’s everyday concerns.” (11/04/26)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/11/04/why-trump-got-the-bloodbath-he-deserved/
- When Foreign Aid Succeeds, Why Doesn’t It End?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Stephen Lewarne“USAID’s experience reveals a missing incentive at the heart of international aid: who is rewarded when a country no longer needs help?” (11/04/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/when-foreign-aid-succeeds-why-doesnt-it-end/
- The ECB’s Next Big Mistake?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott“A flurry of recent news from the European Union has put the eurozone economy into the spotlight: amid a background of solid growth in the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), the European Central Bank (ECB) has held off another rise in interest rates as inflation sticks at 3.8%, almost double its medium-term target of 2%. On top of this, the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, has announced her intention to resign in February 2027, roughly nine months earlier than her tenure is expected to end. There is, evidently, a lot going on in this, but despite the significance of Lagarde’s announcement, the most important is the level of inflation.” (11/04/26)
- Five timeless political lessons that got lost in 2026
Source: Fox News Forum
by Jason Chaffetz“While the leadership of the House and Senate is changing, the fundamentals of American politics have not. In all the finger pointing that will ensue over the coming weeks, some things should already be clear. Regardless of where the last ballots fall, the basic principles of American politics remain the same. Voters still respond to the same things they always have. As Republicans look to 2028, they must double down on the basics of campaigning that stand the test of time. 1.) Candidate quality matters. Fielding the better candidate is not optional. … 2.) Results must be felt. A majority is judged by outcomes people can feel, not by legislative talking points. … 3.) Volume is not a strategy. Too much money is spent on strategies with too little value, often in ways that simply annoy voters….” (11/04/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jason-chaffetz-five-timeless-political-lessons-lost-2026
- Building An America We Are Proud Of
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein“Have Americans gotten the loyalty business all wrong? Are we grasping the ‘second rate’ when we rely on politics to lift us? We are the ones, not politicians, who will build an America we are proud of.” (11/04/26)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/building-an-america-we-are-proud-e42
- It’s the war, stupid
Source: UnHerd
by Sohrab Ahmari“In the wake of the Democratic blowout in Tuesday’s midterms — South Carolina, Kansas, and Texas have gone blue — beware the preachers of holy complexity bent on obfuscating the obvious: President Trump and the GOP broke their pledge of peace, launched an ill-conceived war with Iran, and thus exacerbated an affordability crisis they’d been elected to solve. To be sure, other failures marked the first two years of the Trump administration: the chaotic tariff regime, the grotesque corruption, the performative cruelty of ICE, Trump’s own descent from mere reality-TV vanity to ballroom-obsessed, Neronian caprice. But the Iran war — given both its inflationary effects and galling betrayal of one of Trump’s core pledges — looms largest. The preachers of holy complexity have good reason to avoid this bare truth.” (11/04/26)
- Patrick Stewart’s Theatrical Imagination
Source: Law & Liberty
by Titus Techera“Patrick Stewart’s career shows the connections between lowbrow and highbrow culture.” (11/04/26)
https://lawliberty.org/patrick-stewarts-theatrical-imagination/
- Renewing the Eternal Contract
Source: Law & Liberty
by Daniel Johnson“Ever since England’s first written quasi-constitution—the 1653 Instrument of Government which created Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate but lasted only four years before being superseded—there have been documents that might have evolved into genuine constitutional frameworks. Yet even those that have acquired permanent symbolic status, such as the 1689 Bill of Rights, are still subject to the interpretative vagaries of the zeitgeist. This is, of course, true of the US Constitution, too, as the Supreme Court’s decisions in recent years have cast a new light on doctrines such as the separation of powers or the efficacy of checks and balances. A written constitution does not necessarily guarantee stability, let alone certainty. But in the British case, the absence of definitive rules is integral to the character, even the existence, of the state, which has always prided itself on its flexibility.” (11/04/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/renewing-the-eternal-contract/
- Trump’s Endless Lies, Deceit, Cruelty & Corruption Comes Crashing Down
Source: Common Dreams
by Bradley Blankenship“The much-anticipated U.S. midterm elections—so consequential, in fact, to President Donald Trump that he promised Americans $5,000 in cash if Republicans prevailed—have drawn to a close. As of writing, the much-discussed ‘blue tsunami’ has become a political reality: Democrats have seized control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, delivering a stunning repudiation of a president whose second administration has been nothing short of disastrous. The political ramifications are immense. Although Democrats lack the two-thirds Senate majority necessary to convict and remove Trump following impeachment, they will soon possess something they have been deprived of for two years: the institutional power to investigate his administration, subpoena witnesses, compel testimony, and expose the inner workings of a political machine that has operated with extraordinary impunity.” (11/04/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-corruption-lies-midterms
- VSD Is the Vault with the Secrets
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker“Those who are confident about the safety of vaccines have before them an easy route to shore up public confidence and completely shut down the anti-vaxx movement. They could open the data to what’s called the Vaccine Safety Datalink or VSD. Right now and for the past quarter century, access is severely restricted to only a handful of people at the CDC and the employees of the National Center for Health Statistics Research Data Center, which has the impossible acronym NCHSRDC, in Hyattsville, Maryland. No one can buy the database or access, not the public, not researchers at NIH, not statisticians at universities nor medical doctors at hospitals. … In effect, the VSD is among the most secretive services in the entire government, comparable to Fort Knox, the Federal Reserve, and the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency. It’s the real Puzzle Palace” (11/04/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/vsd-is-the-vault-with-the-secrets/
- Time for a Reset on Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Prior to the midterms, there were indications that President Trump might initiate another intense bombing campaign in Iran after the elections. I’ve got a better idea for the president. In light of the tsunami-like rejection of his presidency at the hands of American voters — owing partly to his illegal and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran — this would be a great time for him to do a complete reset with respect to not only Iran but also Cuba and Venezuela. Rather than bomb Iran again, Trump should order an immediate exit of all U.S. troops from the Middle East. … Lift the brutal decades-old U.S. economic embargo and the U.S. oil blockade. Leave the Cuban people alone …. It’s the same with Venezuela. Leave that country to the Venezuelan people. Stop cooperating with and making deals with Venezuela’s socialist-communist regime and Marxist ruler.” (11/04/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/11/04/time-for-a-reset-on-iran-cuba-and-venezuela/
- Normal Americans punished MAGA
Source: Noahpinion
by Noah Smith“The MAGA people appear to have been laboring under a number of delusions. First, they seem to be genuinely surprised by the fact that they suffered a crushing defeat in the midterm elections. In fact, polls, forecasts, and prediction markets had all been calling a Democratic victory for months now. But a lot of MAGA types appear to have believed that America always has some big hidden reservoir of shy Trump supporters out there that everyone always misses, and that this silent majority would ride to the GOP’s rescue and prove all the pollsters and forecasters wrong, as they did in 2016. To put it mildly, that did not happen.” (11/04/26)
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/normal-americans-punished-maga
- USAID Was Never Only A Leftist Project
Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño“Over the last year, a common narrative has circulated through conservative commentary about Latin America’s political shifts. Washington dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the argument goes, and conservative candidates began winning because American taxpayers stopped subsidizing their opponents. This narrative is misleading once placed under the microscope. But that has not stopped prominent figures on the MAGA right to spin a narrative.” (11/04/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/usaid-was-never-only-a-leftist-project/
- How Trump reacts to this shellacking will determine his legacy
Source: New York Post
by Michael Goodwin“To call Tuesday’s results a mere blue wave doesn’t do justice to the force and size of the impact. That was a blue tsunami that delivered a near-total destruction of the Republican power structure. Just don’t call it a surprise. Any fair reading of the polls in recent weeks clearly revealed the depths of public unhappiness with President Trump and the GOP Congress. Those polls meant it was widely assumed the House would fall, and it collapsed with a thud early in the evening. GOP control of the Senate was also consigned to the dustbin of history. It turns out that Fate has a sense of humor. Thinking he would pump up their turnout, Trump told Republican voters to pretend his name was on the ballot. They may or may not have heard him, but Democrats and most independents heard him loud and clear and soundly rejected him.” (11/04/26)
- Five reasons why Republicans lost so badly
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by Jake Lapham“The Democrats have swept to victory in the US midterm elections, taking control of Congress. While the incumbent president’s party generally tends to have a bad night in these elections, the scale of the Republican defeat is being viewed as a resounding rejection of Donald Trump’s two years in the White House. From angry voters to an unpopular president, here are five reasons why the Republicans lost so many seats. 1.) Soaring cost of living: From coast to coast, voters across the US have been grappling with the soaring cost of essentials. That anger was palpable on the ground in key races. … 2.) Unpopular Iran war: A major factor in surging prices has been the war with Iran which the US and Israel launched in February….” (11/04/26)
- The Lincoln Highway – lesson not learned
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“Time zones, a subject we’ve discussed recently, were invented by the railroads (not government) to help schedule rail traffic. But then, along came the automobile and freedom from rails. And from effective monopolies in many areas, because of the complexity of railroads – and their cost. But times change. Automobiles, like horse-drawn wagons, could and did do more than just serve an area around a railroad station. They began to go long distances. And then… well, read on.” (11/03/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/11/03/the-lincoln-highway-lesson-not-learned/
- Jefferson, Secession, and “All Men Are Created Equal”
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken“Perhaps one of the most abused and misunderstood phrases in American history is found in the Declaration of Independence where Thomas Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal.” Since at least as early as the mid nineteenth century, the phrase has been used by many American politicians as justification for government intervention in the name of imposing whatever interpretation of ‘equality’ happens to be popular at the time.” (11/03/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/jefferson-secession-and-all-men-are-created-equal
- The Food Is Fine. The Recall Process Isn’t.
Source: Independent Institute
by Raymond J March“Last week, the FDA announced a recall of more than 4.3 million tubes of toothpaste. The recall covers 17 varieties, including several marketed to children under brands like Crayola, Hot Wheels, and My Little Pony. No illnesses or injuries have been reported. But toothpaste recalls are just the latest in what seems like a never-ending list of products being recalled by the FDA. The public has noticed. A recent survey reported by Fortune finds 94 percent of Americans are concerned about how often food is being recalled, and two-thirds now avoid an entire food category after a single recall.” (11/03/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/11/03/food-recall-process/
- Democrats Just Laid the Foundation for 2028
Source: The American Prospect
by Paul Starr“Yesterday’s election has major implications for the political era ahead. The scale of Democratic congressional victories lays a foundation for 2028. If Democrats win the presidency in 2028, they may be able to build on those majorities—perhaps even reaching a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate — and have the kind of decisive control of Congress that they have had in major eras of reform like the 1930s and 1960s. As a result, for the next two years, Democrats shouldn’t only be standing up to Donald Trump and investigating corruption. They should be laying the groundwork for reforms that they can take into the 2028 election as a national program, refining ideas, developing support for them, and even getting Trump to veto popular bills that will then be teed up for 2029.” (11/04/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/11/04/democrats-just-laid-the-foundation-for-2028/
- Escape from Brazil
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, has fled Brazil after the corrupt socialist incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was ‘reelected’ to a fourth term by what the American Spectator calls ‘a stunningly irregular vote.’ Flávio’s father has been in prison since 2024 for supposedly plotting a coup against Lula. And this October, after the results of the second round of the presidential election were announced, the Lula government tried to prevent the son from traveling by acting to confiscate his passports. But Flávio Bolsonaro saw the writing on the wall and got out before he could be arrested for having the temerity to run for president.” (11/03/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/11/03/escape-from-brazil/
- Election 2026: Happy Days Are Here Again — In The Worst Way
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“These days, elections don’t end when the votes are cast and counted. In every close race (and many not-so-close races) of consequence, the supposed losers and their supporters move immediately to screeching ‘Rigged! Stolen!’ They demand recounts. They go to court seeking to have ballot boxes seized and election officials indicted. … No matter what happens today, expect Election 2026 to drag on into the new year.” (11/03/26)
- When police treat free speech as suspicious activity
Source: Expression
by Cary Davis“Think of a political or social issue you care about. Now imagine your local city council is considering taking some action related to that issue. You decide to show up to the public comment period and make your voice heard. Then you learn that local police will be monitoring the meeting, looking specifically for ‘unusual questions,’ ‘verbal conflict,’ ’emotional confrontations,’ ‘social media amplification,’ and more. Such conduct will be treated as ‘suspicious behavior’ posing ‘public safety risks.’ Would you think twice about freely sharing your opinion? Unfortunately, that thought experiment isn’t hypothetical.” (11/03/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/when-police-treat-free-speech-as
- Your Speech Will Pay for New Mexico’s $25 Billion Meta Penalty
Source: Cato Institute
by David Inserra“On October 21, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion for violating its Unfair Practices Act. That penalty is massive. But the bigger problem is how the judgment treats the gap between a platform’s moderation promises and its imperfect enforcement as deception, penalizing platforms for moderating protected speech and sidestepping Section 230 and the First Amendment. If nothing is done to stop these attacks on free expression, we will all lose access to online platforms, big and small, as we know them.” (11/03/26)
https://www.cato.org/blog/speech-will-pay-new-mexicos-25-billion-meta-penalty
- Meaningless Midterms in Terms of Liberty
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Notwithstanding the manifest failure of America’s welfare-warfare state and managed-society way of life, with its massive spending, taxation, inflation, and debt, Americans unfortunately remain wedded to this dysfunctional system. The midterm elections are simply a battle over who will exercise the power and dispense the largess that comes with the evil and immoral systems that have destroyed our liberty, privacy, and well-being. To get our nation back on the right track, Americans must move beyond trying to elect the ‘right’ people to public office through a political game of musical chairs.” (11/03/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/11/03/meaningless-midterms-in-terms-of-liberty/
- Republicans Deserve to Lose, but Democrats Do Not Deserve to Win
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul“The Trump-era Republican record of debt and war makes Republicans, with few exceptions, unworthy of support. However, many Democrats offer an unacceptable alternative.” (11/03/26)
- DSA Platform Wants a New Political System; What Would Change?
Source: Town Hall
by Americans for Prosperity“The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) want to overhaul America’s system of government. Its current political program calls for abolishing the Senate and Electoral College and replacing the presidency and Supreme Court with institutions controlled by Congress. These changes would dismantle much of the system of checks and balances established by America’s Founders — a system that has worked well for over 250 years. Here’s what the DSA platform wants to change: 1.) Abolish the U.S. Senate. … 2.) The DSA platform wants to abolish the Electoral College. … 3.) DSA’s proposal would weaken separation of powers, by putting the country’s leader under the authority of the same lawmakers who write our laws. The president can veto legislation passed by Congress. … 4.) The DSA platform wants to replace the Supreme Court with a new system in which Congress chooses the judges and has authority over the courts.” (11/03/26)
- Even a Shellacking Tonight Won’t Pull MAGA Out of the Moral Morass
Source: The UnPopulist
by Damon Linker“The movement’s leaders have given themselves permission to do anything to defeat the Democratic enemy.” (11/03/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/even-a-shellacking-tonight-wont-pull
- Heads We Win, Tails You’re Decertified
Source: The Bulwark
by Will Saletan“When will we know the outcome of the midterm elections? If your answer is ‘when all the ballots are counted,’ think again. Republicans are trying to institutionalize two later stages at which they could overturn the results.” (11/03/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/election-certification-seating-formalities-republicans
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 11/04/26
Source: The Dispatch
“You Are Insufficiently Grateful for Modernity | Interview: Chelsea Follett.” (11/04/26)
- The Vital Center, episode 98
Source: Niskanen Center
“Road-tripping through American history, with Beverly Gage.” (11/04/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/road-tripping-through-american-history-with-beverly-gage
- Reason Interview: Virginia Postrel
Source: Reason
“How Capitalism Quietly Revolutionized Everyday Life.” (11/04/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/11/04/how-capitalism-quietly-revolutionized-everyday-life/
- LPA Two Hour Lunch Hour, 11/04/26
Source: LP Alliance
“Join us for our anything goes podcast every Wednesday at noon eastern!” (11/04/26)
- Reasonably Optimistic, 11/04/26
Source: Washington Post
“Did the 2026 midterms put religion back in politics?” (11/04/26)
- Washington Monthly Podcast, 11/04/26
Source: Washington Monthly
“Who Counts in America?” (11/04/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/11/04/who-counts-in-america/
- PANEL: Can “America First” Become a Bipartisan Cause?
Source: The Realist Review
“Moderated by The New Yorker’s Ishaan Tharoor, James W. Carden, Christopher Mott, and Mark Hannah weigh in …” (11/04/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/panel-can-america-first-become-a
- NPR Politics Podcast, 11/04/26
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“Dems win big in midterm elections.” (11/04/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/11/04/nx-s1-6028566/dems-win-big-in-midterm-elections
- Cato Weekly Podcast, 11/03/26
Source: Cato Institute
“The Original Sin of US Health Policy.” (11/03/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-weekly-podcast/original-sin-us-health-policy
- The Bryan Hyde Show, 11/03/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos joins me for our weekly chat. We talk about election day considerations and everything worthwhile that has nothing to do with politics.” (11/03/26)
- Nonzero, 11/03/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“When AI Enters the Quantum World | Robert Wright & Scott Aaronson.” (11/03/26)
- Privacy’s Defenders Podcast, 11/03/26
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
“The Secret Room.” (11/03/26)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/privacys-defenders-podcast-secret-room
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/03/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Claims He’ll End $4 Billion in Military Aid to Israel, US Watched Qeshm Air Defense, and More.” (11/03/26)
- The Fifth Column: Midterm Madness
Source: The Fifth Column
“[Y[our favorite podcast hosts plus special guests Peter Meijer, Jessica Tarlov, Jamie Kirchick, Mary Katharine Ham, Josh Barro, Megan McArdle, Ben Dreyfuss, Jonathan Martin and more!” (11/03/26)
- America This Week, 11/03/26
Source: Racket News
“Walter Kirn and I will be back on air tonight, watching Election Night lunacy and pondering questions big, small, and in between, as the calendar flips from Midterms to Campaign ‘28.” (11/03/26)
- Capital Record, episode 331
Source: National Review
“Selling a House How You Want to Sell It.” (11/03/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/selling-a-house-how-you-want-to-sell-it/
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 11/03/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Election Desperation? Trump Promised To End Israel Aid!” (11/03/26)
- Sal and Mark, episode 24
Source: Free Talk Live
“Sal and Mark kick off with Aaron of Houdini Swap on the brand new Stealth Send feature inside Edge Wallet, then Paul Puey of Edge Wallet joins to talk about how the integration came together.” (11/03/26)
- Trump Watch, 11/03/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Midterms Will Not Bring Us Freedom.” (11/03/26)
- Compound Interest, 11/03/26
Source: Semafor
“The race to privatize space without killing everyone.” (11/03/26)